Miranda Merchant

Name: Miranda Merchant

Gender: Female

Age: 18

Grade: Senior (12)

School: Bayview Secondary School

Hobbies and Interests: swimming, water polo, athletics, biology, marine biology

Appearance: Miranda is of above-average height, being 5’10 and weighing 146lb. She has a well toned physique from constant swimming, though she is by no means overly muscular, nor is she well endowed. Her skin is fairly pale with freckles dotted all over her rounded face with some on her arms and legs. She doesn’t wear much make up, usually just some lip gloss and a little bit of eye shadow. She does paint her nails (both fingers and toes) a lot though, her favorite colors for that being blue, pink or purple.

She has straight blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, with a bang hanging over her left eye. She has emerald green eyes and blonde eyebrows that match her hair.

On the day of her abduction, Miranda was wearing a magenta spaghetti-strap tank top, pale blue denim shorts and black sandals. She was also wearing silver stud earrings and a pink bangle on her right wrist.

Biography: Miranda was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and was the only child for parents Sean and Claire Merchant. Sean was an accountant while Claire worked part-time as a swim coach at a local swimming pool. With her mother’s job and living on the shore of Lake Michigan for several years, Miranda was often in contact with the water and learnt to swim at an early age. She absolutely loved the water, and as she got older she wanted a job that involved being around it, like working in an aquarium or even possibly following her mother’s line of work, though she couldn’t decide which to follow at the time.

When Miranda was fourteen, a spark from a faulty electrical connection caused their house to go up in flames. Fortunately, all three members of the Merchant household managed to get out unscathed, though their house was completely gutted inside by the ensuing inferno. Once the fire was put out and they could see the extent of the damage, they knew they would not be able to move back in. Lawrence Merchant, Sean’s brother who lived in the suburb of South St. Paul, offered them a temporary place to stay, so they gathered up what little personal belongs they had left and moved in with him. Some months later, Miranda and her parents managed to find a new home just a few blocks away from her uncle, which they live in to this day.

Being the only child, Miranda tended to be spoilt a lot by her parents, and so developed a selfish streak. When they moved in with Lawrence after the fire, she suddenly had to share things with her cousins, Jacob and Ray. It was a massive wake-up call for her when she couldn’t be given what she wanted all the time, a fact she has grudgingly had to get used to. She still acts selfish now and then, something which has separated her from some of her peers. Nevertheless, she still has some friends in the swim team and at her work place.

Miranda tried out for and got into the swim team when she was sixteen, and takes part in other sports as well, such as water polo, track, and snorkeling. She currently holds a part-time job at Urban Behavior at the Promenade, working Thursday evenings and all day Saturday.

Naturally, Miranda excels in sports, and she does fairly well in her academic studies as well. Biology is her strongest subject and the one she wishes to study at SMSU. Once she graduates from there, Miranda hopes to move to one of the coastal states (as of now, she’s undecided between California and Florida) and then pursue a career as a marine biologist, something she had only decided on a couple of years ago.

Advantages: Miranda is quite athletic, so she could possibly hold her own in a fight, or failing that, get away from a threat very quickly. She is also fairly intelligent, and her knowledge of biology could be useful if treating injured wounds.

Disadvantages: Miranda's selfishness has given her a few enemies in the grade, and she is very indecisive and hesitates when making decisions, something that could cost her dearly. Also, on the day of her abduction, Miranda was suffering from an ear infection picked up from swimming, so the hearing in her right ear is significantly inhibited.

Designated Number: Female student no. 109

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Designated Weapon: Garrotted Wire

Conclusion: Miranda's love for swimming and marine biology won't help her much in this deadly game! Let's hope that Ms. Merchant gets a little selfish for her own life and uses that wire to slice up a few of her enemies.

'The above biography is as written by JamesRenard. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: JamesRenard

Kills: None

Killed By: Sarah Atwell

Collected Weapons: Garrotted wire (assigned weapon), branch (picked up off the ground, later discarded when broken), scalpel (from Sarah Atwell, then back to her)

Allies: Saul Fetteralf, Garry Villette, Cyrille LaBlanche, Lily Maclaughlin, Sarah Atwell

Enemies: Sarah Atwell

Mid-game Evaluation: Miranda woke up around the base of the mountain and spent the better part of half an hour strolling around the area with her weapon. She eventually came across the small group consisting of Saul Fetteralf, Garry Villette and Cyrille LaBlanche, who were planning on looking for Violetta Lindsberg. Miranda, like the others, had no idea where the girl was, and agreed to help with the search. She put forward a suggestion that they head for one of the buildings, something that Cyrille disagreed with. However, Saul went ahead with Miranda's plan and the group set off for the ranger station, Miranda picking up a branch along the way to serve as a makeshift weapon.

The group walked for some time, Miranda beginning to wonder if they'd become lost as there was no sight of the ranger station. Cyrille noticed a cave, and despite the objections from both Miranda and Garry, she ran straight inside, Miranda reluctantly following her. Their stay was brief, for Cyrille immediately exited the cave and ran off without waiting for the other three. Miranda decided that sticking around with Cyrille, who was constantly running off and changing her mind, was going to be the death of her, and so wanted out of the group. She and Garry had a heated argument, before Miranda left and walked away without another word.

Miranda travelled north through the night until she reached the northern portion of the felled forest. There she came across Lily Maclaughlin and went to turn around and leave before she noticed her. However, when turning around, Miranda's foot hit a low tree stump and she fell over, attracting Lily's attention. Faced with the prospect of having Lily for company, Miranda tried to bluff her way into having Lily leave her alone by lying about having killed someone, but it backfired when Lily bluffed back, pretending she had a powerful weapon. Miranda was forced to drop the act and come clean. Shortly afterwards Sarah Atwell arrived, informing them of Eve Walker-Luther's death and claiming someone else did it. Miranda, as well as Lily reluctantly teamed up with Sarah after she showed them her assigned weapon (the storage key), and the group headed out of the area in search of shelter.

The three-girl group walked towards the central forest in search of the ranger station, taking a break from their journey early in the morning of Day 3. The announcements were then broadcast, revealing Sarah as Eve's actual killer. Miranda confronted her, but Sarah withdrew the scalpel from her pocket and slashed at Miranda's throat, severing a major artery and jamming the blade in her trachea. As she started to bleed heavily from the mortal wound, Miranda collapsed against a tree, using her remaining strength to remove the scalpel from her neck and throw it at Sarah, before finally succumbing to blood loss.

Post-Game Evaluation: This, my friends, is a clear example of what happens when you put your trust in the wrong people. The writing's on the wall for G109... or rather her stomach.

Memorable Quotes:
 * "It's me, Miranda. [...] D-don't kill me. I come in peace." - Miranda introduces herself to Saul Fetteralf, Garry Villette and Cyrille LaBlanche.


 * "Fine, you can go and follow Cyrille, search for Violetta while risking all your lives in the process, but you can leave me out of this. I only joined your group because I thought I'd be safe in a group, but I guess I was dead wrong." - Miranda declares herself no longer part of Cyrille's group in an argument with Garry.


 * "Who would have thought we went to school with a bunch of psychos? [...] What the hell is wrong with some of these people?" -Miranda's anaysis of the second announcement.


 * "S-Sarah, get the fuck away from me with that thing! Seriously!" - What would be Miranda's final words on the island.

Other/Trivia

 * Miranda's first ever post was starting a thread entitled "Hello, How Can I Help?", set during her work shift in Urban Behavior at the Promenade mall. However, when nobody replied to it for over two weeks, the thread was deleted at the handler's request and Miranda was posted with elsewhere.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Miranda, in chronological order.

Pre-Game:


 * Enjoy the Movie

V4:


 * The 8-Ball Knows
 * Extinguishing the Light of the Future
 * No News is Good News
 * Hearing is Believing

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Miranda Merchant. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * Miranda fell by the wayside, unfortunately. Like so many characters who traveled with one of their handler's more popular/renowned characters, she was relegated to a support role and quickly sacrificed to save someone else. I think the big thing that kept Miranda from finding more of a path was that she was chained to the same group and wasn't her handler's primary focus there, and I really hope we see less of that in V5 and onward. - MurderWeasel